AusBonsai

It's more work than I bargained collating this progression so I aplogise in advance for those who have to do it also ... and in retrospect for those who've already done it!
I think it has developed quite well, pretty decent growth and the plan I had at the beginning has pretty much played out like I had wanted. I was going for a quite dynamic tree, I guess windswept but I don't really like that term for some reason ... although I don't have a better one! A very easy tree to work on. I left it to grow a LOT as getting some meat on the structure was a big factor in making this something more than a spindly pot plant. I think the trunk has pretty much doubled in size at the base which proportionally is now pretty good. The whole mess that is the "third trunk" is dead wood in the making. Unfortunately I didn't think it was quite fat enough just yet to begin that process, and it's pretty hard to thicken once you strip bark back and kill it off ... so this tree stays in "progression" for another year or so.
Pot is by Marie Hewartson which I picked up from a visit to Bonsai Island a while back with this composition in mind ... I think it works very well with the tree.
Anyway, here is my entry in all it's glory. Once again, good luck to all those who are submitting ... and thanks for playing!

I can’t see how to sign up for the next comp.

Ok, so here is my entry. I bought this JBP from a local Bonsai nursery. I added wire, bent, then left it to grow for the majority of the 3 years before potting it up and finally candle cutting.
Enjoy and Happy New Year. This is how it looked when purchased from the nursery. All bent up. Growing on. Potted into a bigger terracotta pot to continue to grow. Thinned out. Potted up in a Bonsai pot. Just after final candle cutting. This is the final picture and entry for the competition. Note: lower right branch is possibly a sacrifice branch that will not be part of the final design.

Thanks for letting me be part of it and I can't wait to see all the other entries.

Thanks for your entry Miikeboyle… looking good!
I think you might have changed the thread title in the subject though somehow!?
When I said put your name and tree, I meant as a heading at the start of your post (which I didn’t do! ).
Hopefully this reply will get it back on track, but if not I would appreciate if a mod could rename this thread back to “3 Year Time Capsule Competition - Entries” to avoid confusion for others trying to find where to post.
Happy New Year everyone!

Mine died . It was a Ficus microcarpa var Hillii.

I did a terrible job at organising my photos but I think I've scraped together enough of a timeline!
This was the starting point of my little jacaranda.
I got rid of the thickish branch on the left and carved it out a bit.
A bit of wire, doing who knows what...
After about a year it dawned on me that some significant thickening up was needed, so I planted it in the ground. This pic is from boxing day in 2021.
About a month ago some flowers appeared which was nice! I decided to leave them on.
And just a couple of days ago I noticed some tiny seed pods.
I got excited initially and bought this Shuhou pot for it. It should come in handy in about five years
And here's the tree as it is today - pretty much the same as it was a year ago.

By this point I was assuming I'd have a perfectly proportioned tree in a bonsai pot - some lessons in patience and appreciation of time to be had! I'll keep this one in the ground for a while yet.

Bumping the thread for obvious reasons!

Getting to the end now.

Acck, I will try to get pics tomorrow.

This is going to be a great competition. Too bad I missed the entry but will follow the progress of participants with interest.
I have no doubt there will be some stunning bonsai at the end.

Good luck all.

Here's my entry of Disopyros yandina var EBONY.

Very slow to thicken, and I'm still working out how to get it to thrive. It has not missed a beat with root pruning, though, so that's something! I took an air layer, but not sure it's been successful. Cut it off today to get it started in its own pot, and now I have 10 years to get this tree into shape. Thanks for the challenge Ryan!

I didn't take enough photos. Still quite a few years away from being decent.

Sent from my SM-G975F using Tapatalk

Here is the progress of my tree over the last 3 years. The plan was for a small size tree utilising some stock I had started from seed in 2016 and had pretty much neglected since that time. The original post can be found here viewtopic.php?p=272731#p272731 but I will include the first shots so the timeline is complete.

The start
As mentioned in my first post, this tree needed a serious repot and I removed a lot of roots and cut it back
The tree responded well
A thin out
A new leader was selected and allowed to grow for 2 years
A repot and cut back the leader again
How the tree finished up at the end of the competition.
The most recent cut is healing well but needs a fraction longer before I cut back again and start deigning the top of the tree

loving the entries. Just sorted all my photos tonight. Ill post tomorrow night now. I must be almost the last person to post their entry?

Hi everyone,

Here is my 3yr entry. Unfortunately the tree ended a bit bigger than shohin size which was the original plan. I didn't have a Crepe Myrtle in my collection before I started so it was good experience in dealing with this species.

Here is the start - $5 purchase in Bunning's Bargin Bin
I transferred this to a bigger grow pot for 12-18mths
Started on the initial styling
Decided to dress it up with a new pot for the competition
Final entry - Front view
Back view
Close-up of Nebari - still got a bit of work to do here
Reasonably happy with the result after 3yrs. However still would like to reduce the tree down and develop the truck. I intend to take it out of the pot and let it run free for a few years and start to develop the branches again. One of the main attraction of this tree is the bright red flowers in Summer but I never managed to get a photo of them LOL. Good Luck everyone in the Comp.

Well this is the Japanese Red Pine. It has been a fun journey with this pine, It still has a way to go but this is the story so far.

So i brought the tree from the Canberra Bonsai exhibition in 2019 and this is how it looked. I focused on getting the tree established and growing into a bonsai container. It had been growing in that black pot for some time. So I picked up a cheap Chinese pot which cost me like $40 and started the repotting in March 2020. Repotting at that time of year was a little risky but I felt confident I could get it to survive. I didn't really remove alot of roots on the tree, mainly focused on removing some of the bottom. Just to fit into the pot. The aim was to get it to grow in a rectangle pot, once the roots established on the left and right of the pot i could then reduce the soil line without too much risk. I also wired a couple of branches as well.

This is how the tree looked after the repot. Couple weeks later I lost all of the inner needles, I was disappointed as i was hoping to shorten alot of the branches but now they looked long and leggy. The next 12 months is pretty rough for the tree. I had moved to a new place and the bonsai area was very small. So I spent a lot of time moving the tree to spots in the garden that got a lot of sun. The picture below shows it look sad and the branches looking very bare and leggy. Tree is starting to look a little better in April 2021, you can see the candles starting to grow. I really start smashing the fertiliser into the tree now that it's looking better. I've got little baskets of slow release placed on the soil line and its getting liquid fertiliser every two weeks. I had to get an old shopping bag and cover the soil line to stop all the rain from keeping it wet all the time. It was a real pain as it was always wet. As a result it was attacked by small white scale, it took months to get rid of them. I manged to find confidor for sale at a nursery in Canberra, once I used that I haven't had any issues with the scale. Pretty sure i only used it twice on the tree.
So the next big update is September 2021. The tree is really picking up by this time. I can even see little back buds starting to grow too. Candles are really pushing by OCT 2021. I never removed any candle but I did remove the little pine cones before they could develop.
So the tree continued to progress really well in 2022. It didn't miss a beat. unfortunately all the pictures I took have been lost for 2022, if you know anything about ransomware then you know its not worth submitting to their demands. I did do some work on the lower branches. I took the branch on the left and bent it back and down. Then I bent the other branch around the back of the tree to fill the space on the right side of the tree. I am happy with the result. It would look so much better if it had a branch growing on the lower right side. I've also removed a bunch of branches I believe I no longer require.

The tree really needs a repot, it has filled that pot really well in the last three years. I was hoping to repot it before the end of this comp but I runout of time. It really needs a nice pot too. I haven't fertilised a lot this growing season as I moved house again. Two weeks after we moved we got a freck hail storm, this knocked off a bunch of back buds which was very disappointing.

Anyway this is the final image of the tree. I think i have a lot to work with going into 2023.